Wednesday, December 3, 2014

The flight test will send Orion farther into space than any spacecraft designed for astronauts has gone in more than 40 years, testing a new, unique spacecraft for the first time in the orbital environment it will endure on future missions to deep space on our#JourneytoMars.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

I've done this before and may have to have another go. Lots of fun. I love waiting for a package to arrive! Thanks to Chris, an engineer at Parallax, and the host of Savage Circuits for the video and the great idea!

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

"To Catch A Comet," a compelling documentary that details the complexities and challenges of the ten-year, four-million-mile journey of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Spacecraft Rosetta as it chased down and landed on the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in a history-making feat this week, premieres Wednesday, November 19, 2014 on PBS.You can also stream the entire program on the PBS website.

This is an amazing achievement and demonstrates the endless possibilities in the field of robotics! See the full story here.

One other interesting bit of info - The lander is named after Philae Island in the Nile where an
obelisk was found and used, along with the Rosetta Stone, to decipher Egyptian
hieroglyphics.

Information on the video - Rosetta’s deployment of Philae to land on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The animation begins with Philae still on Rosetta, which will come to within about 22.5 km of the centre of the nucleus to release the lander on 12 November 2014.

The animation then shows Philae being ejected by Rosetta and deploying its own three legs, and follows the lander’s descent until it reaches the target site on the comet about seven hours later. The animation is speeded up, but the comet rotation is true: in the time it takes for Philae to descend, the nucleus has rotated by more than 180º (the comet’s rotation period is 12.4 hours).

The final steps of Philae’s descent towards the comet are shown as seen by a hypothetical observer close to the landing site on the comet.

Acknowledgement: The background image of the sequence showing Philae closing in on the landing site was taken by Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera (ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA) on 14 September 2014 from a distance of about 30 km.

Friday, October 24, 2014

In the report posted below, Ken Gracey, of Parallax, had some reference info in his presentation to the teachers about a company called Interactive Media Publishing. See www.exploringrobotics.com It is a company that makes education material for different age levels and uses the S2, BoeBot and some other bots. Below is the video for the Middle 5-8 grade program.

Also the High School bot uses the S2 - and Fluke 2 (which I did not know about) to teach Python programming! I knew that the Serial port was retained for compatibility with the old IPRE Fluke - but I thought it wasn't around anymore...Who knew?

The biggest surprise was on a info page they had about the Parallax S2 robot. Here is a link. At the bottom of the page, there are links to videos of the S2 in action. Two of the five YouTube videos are by yours truly!

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Ken Gracey of Parallax (Facebook at Parallax MicrocontrollersandRobots) reports on teaching teachers in Iowa using the S2 robot. See his report here.I posted previously about the programs that I wrote in response to Ken's request for suggestions on the Parallax Forums (see below). Looks like he used some! Ken's programs can be found here.

This is a video featuring Grace Hopper. She was one of those early women involved in computing. Her contributions were unbelievable! This is a bit of what here Wikipedia biography says about her...(See Grace Hopper) Lots of good stuff in The Innovators too! See this post.

Programmers Betty Jean Jennings (left) and Fran Bilas (right) operate ENIAC's main control panel at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering.

Great story here on NPR about women's heavy involvement in the early days of computing and how it all changed. The story "When Women Stopped Coding" was by Steve Henn and aired on October 21, 2014. I have to admit hearing the details of this really makes me very sad. I hope this is changing some now. As a father of a daughter, I hope she knows and is being taught that she can do whatever she wants to!

Saturday, October 18, 2014

This time we do some Binary Addition and Subtraction as one S2 counts the other as it passes. The S2 passing Left to Right is added to the total and the same S2 passing from Right to Left is subtracted from the count total.

The original Binary Addition and Subtraction code was modified with a "wait" to allow time for the counted S2 to pass (and allows a full pass in either direction without being "counted" on both sides in a pass). See BinaryCountAddSubwWait code The S2 being counted makes Counter-Clockwise and Clockwise circles - the loops can be adjusted to get different results. See TwoDirectionCircle code and photo below - with a nod to Nikos (on the Parallax Forums) and his nice noted photos. This version results in an answer count of 2 in binary form - just the center LED lighted green! Again 4 is my max count in the code.

See the video and for the code - visit the Parallax Forums in this thread.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Last example for Ken from this thread on the Parallax Forums. - this is a follow up to the Binary Counting below. This version counts when objects pass the S2 left to right and subtracts when objects pass from right to left. I used a screen/target in the video - you could count passing S2s or Scribblers as I did previously.

I wanted to count/add to 7 and subtract back to 0 - but I ran into the limitation of variables (I think - the program wouldn't load - till I reduced to a maximum count of 4). So we count to 4 and subtract to zero. See other info in the post below (on Binary Count using the LEDs), video below and the good and bad code posted on the Forums at the link above.

NOTE: The code there labeled TOOMANYVAR - which looks okay to me (may have an error), never would load properly - again I think because it exceeds the limits of the Program Maker or the S2 - I asked for input on the Forums and there may be more there eventually.

Hope Ken has a great time with his class! The S2 is an amazing robot to teach with...

Alright, here is the one robot parade promised to erco. The S2 dances in to "When the Saints Go Marching In!" This is another example of a program written only with the GUI Program Maker in response to a call from Ken Gracey of Parallax for some examples for an upcoming class.

Music photo, and video attached. For code and other info - including Ken's original post - see the Parallax Forums in this thread.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

This one is called Light-N-Logo Tracking (though it is really just light tracking!) It also features simple GUI Program Maker programming with the S2.

The Target Bot S2 is equipped with an LED flashlight in a container (two bowls stuck together sticky tack) complete with the Parallax Logo - it rotates clockwise and counter-clockwise (randomized by a coin toss) around the second S2 Tracking Bot. Can the tracker follow? See photos and video.

This is similar to Light following but a bit easier since the Tracking Bot rotates in place. The Target Bot just runs a circle with changes of direction.

Friday, October 10, 2014

My friend, Ken Gracey, at Parallax is teaching a course in Iowa for 45 teachers who will be
learning the S2 robot for their elementary school programs. He posted the
announcement on the Parallax Forums here and
said, "The S2 GUI provides a whole semester's worth of projects,
but what gets teachers and students really excited is when the robots interact
with one another...I know there's more we can do, using the GUI and the sensors
on the S2. Can you give me some more ideas about how we can make the S2s communicate
with one another - strictly from GUI programming activities."

So here are a couple of ideas that I came up with.

Number One - Here is a demo with two programs written in the GUI (that
means they will run on the Original Scribbler and S2, of course). Old blue is
programmed to count in binary numbers up to 7 (with 3 LED indicators we have 0
- 7 - 1s column, 2s column and 4s column - On is 1 and Off is 0). See graphics
below.

The S2 (because of its encoders and ability to stay on
course) is programmed to run 7 circles (can be simply reset to some other
number up to 7 in the loop counter). As it passes by, old blue will count as it
passes, using the IR detectors.

See the following demo video...

Number Two - Variation on the theme above. Should be easy for your
teachers to figure out and students will love it because it resembles a magic
trick - "Fire Stealer"

The sneaky S2 sings Charge!, runs erco's figure 8 and
"steals" LED light - "fire" - from Scribbler A and drops it
off at Scribbler B. When all the light is stolen from Blue A - it says Uh-Oh!,
and when all the LEDs are lit on Scribbler B, it says TaDa!

Enjoy the video! The code for both of these examples is available on the Forums at the link above.

Edit:

Number Three - And last one... maybe!

I call this one Ribbon
Following.

I took a black piece of
ribbon (weighted with a quarter taped to the back) and attached it to my blue
Scribbler. Using the S2 default line following program, the S2 gives chase. The
slightly raised ribbon attached to the Scribbler seems to work well - with the
usual goofs, of course! I had to adjust the speeds of the two bots to make the
following work best. See photo below and...Enjoy this video -
Thanks to videographer, scribbler-kart!

Friday, October 3, 2014

Parallax, a Rocklin, California company is helping children embrace science, technology and engineering with the help of robots. For more information click above.Most of you know that I think that Parallax is the very best. Their products and customer service are second to none!

Saturday, September 27, 2014

After 2 years and nearly 9 kilometers of driving, NASA's Mars Curiosity has arrived at the base of Mount Sharp to begin a whole new phase of exploration. Video from September 11.

And in video from September 25 - Curiosity has collected its first drill sample from the base of Mount Sharp. The scientific allure of the layered mountain inside a crater drew the team to choose this part Mars as its landing site.Amazing real work is being done far away from Earth with such advanced robots working with teams here directing the process!

Parallax is now selling these. It is the Klenk Tools 2 in 1 Wire Cutter Stripper. Looks like they work really well and they are not expensive at all. Added this to my wish list.Edit: These are on the way... Couldn't resist.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Parallax's™new, bright red, S2 is designed to be a worthy successor to their original blue Scribbler Robot. Powered by Parallax's™ Propeller chip, a multicore processor ideal for robotics, the opensource and user hackable S2 should have everyone from beginners to experienced users excited and experimenting right out of the box. Read More »

What I will get is their first product! The Robot Shield, Revision A, connects to the Quickstart and they are marketing it as "a great board to get quickly get your Robot up and running." The Robot Shield was initially developed for David Gitz's Masters Thesis. Now they are making them to sell to others. They will soon have a Kickstarter and will be releasing the B Revision. Here is a photo of the Robot Shield, Revision A, mounted on a Parallax Propeller Quickstart Board and a photo of the T Shirt too.

By the way, the T Shirt is printed by CustomInk.com - the same company that printed the Robothon T Shirt I posted previously - Seems like a very cool company.

I was lucky enough to have purchased Parallax's original 12 Volt Motor and Wheel Kit (featured in this old thread on the Parallax Forums) that Parallax sold. It featured the encoder wheels and sensors shown below. This was the unit used on the Eddie Robot Platform and I think the original MadeUSA Platform. Encoders are used to keep wheels running at the same speed so that a robot continues in a straight path and to measure the distance the robot has traveled.

Friday, September 5, 2014

The Seattle Robotic Society's Robothon 2014 is almost here! It will be held on September 20th at the Seattle Center Armory from 9:30 to 5:30. You can go to robothon.org or seattlerobotics.org for rules and descriptions of all the competitions. Obviously, this is way too far from here for me to go, but I've followed the event for years. Thanks to Carol Lynn Hazlett, who is a contributing editor for Robot Magazine, robot builder extraordinaire, and a member of SRS, I got this year's T Shirt. Her only stipulation was that I had to wear it on September 20th!Thanks Carol!By the way, this shirt was made by a great company called CustomInk. Check out their website. I know where I'm going the next time I need T shirts made...

My robotic's lab is set-up again and ready for some fun. I got it finished at the tail end of the summer and am back in business after a big mess and long hiatus when we moved.

I began at our old house with just a table in my bedroom - I'll call that Lab 1.0. Then, I moved my lab into the corner of our den - that was Lab 2.0.Lab 2.1 was a slight remodel when I got a computer, just for robotic's work. My wife found the great glass door storage cabinets (say 2.1.5) and then I re-arranged in the same location - That was Lab 2.2.

When we moved to our new house, we unpacked mostly, but the Lab was still really not set-up, so Lab 3.0 wasn't really functional and just sat there unused. Ugh!

This summer my son and I decided enough was enough. So... Here are the photos of Lab 3.1. Standing in the middle of the room and turning clockwise, here are four views. I can find everything now.